Signaling high sensitivity: The roles of sensory processing sensitivity, assertiveness, and the dark triad

Abstract

High-sensitivity signaling may be an attempt to adapt to an environment by sensitive individuals. However, it may also be a deceptive strategy of nonreciprocal resources extraction used by people with a highly exploitative interpersonal style. In their first study ( n = 102), the authors used a peer-rating design to investigate the associations between perceiving somebody as highly sensitivity and attributions of agency and communion. In their second study ( n = 102), they used a dyadic design (dyads of friends) to investigate the accuracy of high-sensitivity attributions (i.e., correlations of self-report and peer ratings of sensory processing sensitivity). In their third study ( n = 260), they used self-report questionnaires to investigate the location of high-sensitivity signaling in a nomological net of strategies for demanding special treatment (such as entitlement, person victimhood, etc.). The authors also examined the correlations between sensory processing sensitivity, assertiveness, and the dark triad. It was found that people who were perceived as highly sensitive were also regarded as displaying more unmitigated communion. However, people demonstrated poor accuracy in their perception of high sensitivity. High-sensitivity signaling was positively associated with, but distinguishable from, other strategies of demanding special treatment. Individuals with high sensory processing sensitivity signaled their sensitivity and were more eager to use the “highly sensitive person” label. These associations were stronger when individuals were highly assertive. Instrumental signaling of high sensitivity to influence others was, however, associated with narcissism. Signaling high sensitivity appeared to be associated with beneficial social attributions, but simultaneously it is easy to deceptively signal that one is highly sensitive. Signaling high sensitivity could thus be an honest signal given by people with high sensory processing sensitivity, but also used instrumentally by narcissistic individuals to exploit others. The findings are important not only for public understanding of the widely disseminated label of “highly sensitive person,” but also for clinicians and counsellors who encounter people who identify as being highly sensitive.